When the army took the field in the summer of 1710, the Sixth proceeded to the camp at Balaguer, where they were reviewed by King Charles on the 10th of June. The two claimants to the throne of Spain headed their respective armies, and King Philip had the advantage in point of numbers; but after reconnoitring his adversaries' fortified camp at Balaguer he retired. King Charles moved forward, and on the 27th of July a cavalry action was fought on the grounds near Almanara, when upwards of forty squadrons of the enemy's best cavalry, and a brigade of infantry, were overthrown with great slaughter. Harvey's horse (now second dragoon guards), the royal dragoons, and several other corps, gained great honour. The Sixth foot hastened to the scene of conflict; but the enemy was routed before the infantry had an opportunity to deploy their ranks. Several corps, however, joined in the pursuit, and made great slaughter.
This victory gave the allies an ascendancy over their opponents. King Philip called in his detachments and retired, and was followed by the forces under King Charles. In this advance the troops underwent great fatigue and privation with patient resolution and perseverance which redounded to their honour. At the town of Candasmas the soldiers suffered from the scarcity of water and wine. "We were glad to march out of this place" (observes an officer who was present) "on the next morning; but found ourselves in as great distress from the want of water as the day before, till we came to Bacarolos, where we encamped, the enemy still retiring before us. At break of day our army marched on in four columns, in expectation of overtaking the enemy, but we were disappointed, and had to encounter, on our march to Usera on the Ebro, violent thirst and heat, without a drop of water; and to incommode us more, the enemy had set fire to a very long heath we had to pass over. It cannot be conceived what we suffered upon such a march, smothered all the day with clouds of ashes, especially the foot[29]." At night the men reached the banks of the Ebro, and quenched their thirst at the stream. Continuing the march, on the 19th of August they discovered the united French and Spanish forces in order of battle in front of the city of Saragossa, and preparations were made to attack the enemy on the following day. Several men, who were so pressed with hunger and thirst as to venture to gather grapes in a vineyard situated between the two armies, were shot by the enemy's out-posts.
The enemy's lines extended from the banks of the Ebro to the brow of a steep hill on their right; and the Sixth, being formed in Major-General Wade's brigade, were destined to attack the enemy's right.
The sun had scarcely risen on the morning of the memorable 20th of August, 1710, when the guns of both armies opened a tremendous fire, and the deep tones of the artillery reverberated in the mountains and valleys. The allied army stood prepared for action, and King Charles rode along the ranks to stimulate the officers and men to deeds of heroism. The Sixth and other war-worn veterans in Wade's brigade excited his Majesty's attention: fatigue and privation had not quenched the native valour which glowed in their breasts and beamed in their sun-burnt countenances, and the King complimented the brigade as he passed. About mid-day, Lieut.-General Stanhope, whose conduct on this occasion excited applause[30], led forward a brigade of cavalry, and commenced the action by a gallant charge on the squadrons on the enemy's right; but the opposing horsemen having a great superiority of numbers, gained some advantage. Six squadrons of Portuguese dragoons in English pay, and clothed in scarlet uniforms, fled from the field; the French and Spanish troopers pursued with eagerness, and imagining they had routed the British cavalry, they concluded that victory was certain; but the British, Dutch, and Palatine foot, opposed to the enemy's right wing, were brought forward, and they soon gave a decisive turn to the fortune of the day. Advancing steadily up the rising ground, the Sixth, and three other battalions under Major-General Wade, gained the crest of the enemy's position, and while the dragoons fought with deadly fury in the vale below, the four regiments raised a British shout, and rushing upon a brigade of the enemy's foot, broke its ranks with a fearful crash. A few battalions made a resolute resistance, but were overpowered and nearly annihilated. While the Sixth were fighting on the high grounds on the left, the battle became general along the line; and eventually, King Charles gained a most decisive victory. The wreck of the opposing army fled from the field, leaving twenty-two pieces of cannon, a number of standards and colours, all their baggage, and King Philip's equipage and plate in possession of the victorious allied army. The behaviour of the British troops was applauded: they exhibited thirty standards and colours which they had captured from the enemy, as trophies of their valour; and were thanked by King Charles for the eminent service they had rendered to his cause. Colonel Thomas Harrison of the Sixth was sent to England with the news of this victory to Queen Anne[31].
King Philip fled in consternation and dismay, and the allied army advanced in triumph to the capital. A crisis had arrived, and the destiny of Spain appeared to depend on the speedy advance to Madrid of a body of British and Portuguese troops which were manœuvring on the frontiers of Portugal; but the Portuguese generals disappointed the hopes of the allies, and sent their troops into quarters. Meanwhile King Charles occupied Madrid with a small army; the enemy called to his aid additional troops; new armies and new generals appeared in Spain, and the forces of King Philip were soon so superior in numbers to the allies, that the latter were forced to retire from the capital towards Catalonia. King Charles consulted his own safety and proceeded to Barcelona, accompanied by a detachment of the royal dragoons. The army was pressed by the enemy in its retiring movements; the country people withheld supplies of provisions and forage, and availed themselves of every opportunity to attack small parties and to plunder the baggage. Thus harassed on every side—worn out with the fatigues of a long campaign—in a country hostile to their cause—exposed to inclement weather, and without tents—the condition of the soldiers may be more easily conceived than expressed. On the 6th of December, the Sixth and several other corps, forming the rear column on the left, under Lieut.-General Stanhope, arrived at the village of Brihuega, consisting of about a thousand houses, and situate on the side of a hill near the river. Here the troops halted on the following day, and at the moment when the officers and men were expecting orders to march, the village was surrounded by the French and Spanish forces under the Duke of Vendosme. The English, finding their retreat thus cut off, prepared for a vigorous defence; but unfortunately they had no artillery, and very little ammunition, and the ruinous old wall which surrounded the village was but a feeble bulwark to oppose to a powerful train of artillery. The enemy forced one of the gates with their cannon, made a practicable breach in the wall, and attacked the place by storm. But British courage did not quail before the host of foes by which the village was surrounded; and the enemy was driven back with great slaughter. A second attack was made: eight hundred French infantry gained access to the village, and a sharp conflict was maintained in the houses and streets; and when the English had expended all their ammunition, they hurled bricks, stones, and other missiles from the tops of the houses upon their opponents. But being pent up in a small village by a numerous army, and without ammunition, they were forced to surrender prisoners of war. Such was the fate of two thousand brave men, whose achievements are immortalized in history; and the veterans of the Sixth, who had so often signalized themselves, were consigned to surveillance and to prison: but their honour was preserved untarnished.
1711
1712
1713
1714
Lieut.-Colonel John Ramsay and about three hundred officers and men of the regiment were thus made prisoners at the little walled town of Brihuega, in the mountains of Castile; but the officers and men on command and on detachment in the towns through which the army advanced escaped this disaster. The enemy used every means to induce the English, German, and Palatine soldiers, taken prisoners, to enlist into their service, and withheld provision from such as refused: this, however, proved advantageous to the allies; the soldiers availed themselves of every opportunity to desert the enemy's service, and returned in parties of thirty and forty to their own army.[32] Recruits also arrived from England; the officers and men who remained in captivity were exchanged, and several of the corps were re-organized; but the Sixth do not appear to have been engaged in any important service in the years 1711 and 1712. On the decease of the Emperor of Germany, King Charles was elevated to the imperial throne; one of the competitors for the crown of Spain was thus removed; a cessation of hostilities took place between the English and French in the campaign of 1712, which was followed by a treaty of peace, called the peace of Utrecht; and the Sixth proceeded to Ireland.
1715
1716
After the decease of Queen Anne, and the accession of King George I., several alterations were made in the army, and Colonel Harrison was succeeded in the command of the Sixth by Colonel Robert Dormer, from the lieut.-colonelcy of the first troop (now first regiment) of life-guards, by commission dated the 7th of March, 1716.